Ann Romney Blasts SC Gubernatorial Candidate for Sexist Speech Slip

Ann Romney is calling out South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen for an inadvertent sexist comment about his opponent, Gov. Nikki Haley.

"When I first heard about it, it hit me right in my gut," Romney said, according to CNN. "My nerve endings went haywire. It's so upsetting when you know someone can say something like that about a woman, and not have any kind of reaction. It's so unacceptable. Nikki is a great girl and has been a great governor."

The comment happened at a campaign event last week, when Sheheen said what sounds like, "We are going to escort whore out the door," before repeating himself to say, "We're going to escort her out the door."

A video of the foible went viral.

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Sheheen apologized on a local radio show and said his words were "garbled."

Still, Romney called the comment discouraging.

"We need to make sure we have a safe place so that other women can feel like they can do this and these kinds of things aren't going to happen to them," Romney told CNN. "You get so sick of saying there is bias out there, but if a Republican had said this, it would be blowing up in their face like nobody's business. Where is EMILY's List? Where is N.O.W.? Where are they?"

Twitter users offered mixed reactions.

Ann Romney blasts Dems for sexist slur http://t.co/qt7hsf0tCW Day late and a dollar short ann. Where's your outrage at longtime @GOP slurs

— Edward Glen (@NewsToYouToday) October 28, 2014

Ann Romney blasts SC Dem @VincentSheheen over sexist slur: http://t.co/otGUMAAbJQ // Glad she's speaking out, since media chose to ignore.

— Jon Thompson (@JonThompsonDC) October 28, 2014

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